1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to poultry chillers. More specifically, the invention relates to auger-type poultry chillers in which "clumping" or packing of poultry in the auger is minimized or prevented.
2. Related Art
Poultry chillers, such as auger-type poultry chillers, are known in the art. A partial cutaway view of a portion of one such auger-type poultry chiller is illustrated in FIG. 1 and a side cutaway view thereof is illustrated in FIG. 2.
An auger of the chiller includes a series of flights 100A, 100B, 100C, 100D, 100E, and so forth. Each flight includes a series of steps 101, 102, and so forth. The steps are inherent in the construction of the flights. The flights are connected in a series so that their outer edges form a continuous helical structure located within a housing 105. Suitable means, such as a motor, rotates the auger counter-clockwise as viewed in FIG. 1 within the housing to move the product at a controlled rate from an inlet end to an outlet end.
Items of a poultry product, such as slaughtered, eviscerated chickens or turkeys, enter the housing through a first end 110 and are moved through a chilled water bath by rotation of the auger toward a second end 120. During the chilling process, chilled water enters the housing at entry points 130, and exits at point 140, the water flowing in a direction opposite to that of the poultry product. The water being warmed by contact with the initially-warmer poultry product, is re-circulated and re-chilled by a refrigeration unit 150 before being returned to the auger housing.
In this manner, the poultry product entering the housing is chilled by the water flowing in the opposite direction to its own motion. When operating properly, the chilled water flowing in the chiller lowers the temperature of the product uniformly and sufficiently from approximately 100.degree. F. to approximately 35.degree. F. before the product exits the chiller at end 120.
The chiller illustrated in FIG. 1 has the disadvantage that the poultry product sometimes packs and "clumps" in certain areas in the housing rather than progressing; uniformly through the chiller When the product packs and clumps in certain flights rather than being evenly distributed among the flights, the chilled water does not surround each item uniformly, retarding the chilling of the product to USDA (United States Department: of Agriculture) standards, impeding the desired agitation of the product, and thwarting uniform control of moisture introduced into the product as well as uniform final temperature. It is to prevent such clumping, and to maximize the functional advantages of an auger-type chiller, that the present invention is directed.